A mild selloff across Asian share markets today following the mixed action overnight due to the lack of direction from closed US markets. Focus on the Canadian imbroglio over the Huawei CFO court case brought the Yen buyers to the fore and saw risk currencies like Aussie and Kiwi to falter. The latest IMF growth
by Chris Becker The PBOC are back on the weakening bent today with no news about the US/China trade talks or Trump’s shutdown not pushing currency markets around. The Australian dollar is flat lining at the mid 71s against USD, ready to make a new daily low as it moves to breakdown before Thursday’s unemployment
by Chris Becker The Bitcoin boosters are back! HODL! Russia is still going to save the day and Bitcoin is going to $2 million! From Mickey: The economic analyst who claims Russia is about to buy more than $10 Billion worth of Bitcoin has responded to doubts about his credibility. Speaking exclusively to Micky News, Vladislav
by Chris Becker As the world’s elite – besides Donald Trump who is holed up in his McMansion – descend upon Davos for the World Economic Forum, the IMF is out with an update to its growth forecasts. The timing could have been a bit better given the release of the Chinese 4Q GDP print
By Chris Becker The closed US markets due to the MLK holiday left risk markets floundering a little overnight with a pullback in European equities offset by higher oil prices. The newswires were dominated by the Chinese GDP figures and the latest IMF update to global growth risks, plus the usual Brexit imbroglio. Looking at
by Chris Becker Here’s the latest from the iron ore price complex: Futures lept on the Dalian Commodity Exchange and in Singapore for the 6 month and 12 month respectively, while spot iron ore slipped. Looks like some more utilization as we get into the Chinese New Year. Texture from Reuters: “Our sintering data
Asian share markets had a good start to the week today with green across the board, helped by the very positive sentiment on Wall Street on Friday, and a much stronger USD against domestic currencies. The ASX200 almost closed above 6000 points helped by a lower Aussie dollar in response to the Chinese GDP print
by Chris Becker From Capital Economics on today’s GDP print from China: GDP growth edged down from 6.5% y/y in Q3 to 6.4% last quarter, in line with both the Bloomberg median and our forecast. GDP growth for 2018 as a whole was 6.6%, down from 6.8% in 2017. The official GDP figures have been
by Chris Becker As US stock markets recover from the December rout, even as the Trump shutdown rolls into its 29th day, it’s critical to look at what goosed the S&P500 to its previous highs before this latest correction. A year into Trump’s presidency and the US economy was sailing along if measured by lower
by Chris Becker The Chinese GDP print has seen the Australian dollar fall back to the Friday night session lows at 71.50: With Kiwi also falling: But stocks are still well bid in response to the surge on Wall Street on Friday night, although the ASX200 is now treading water. Amid all the GDP prints –
by Chris Becker From the bowels of Ross Gittins comes “Positions vacant: the nation needs economists (women preferred)” Never in the field of economic conflict was so much analytical effort devoted to so few… as in Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe’s one-man crusade to save the economics profession. This latter-day Lord Kitchener wants more young
By Chris Becker A very strong finish to the week on Friday night with European stocks leading the charge and then US bourses pushing higher as reports suggested that China may offer a big take up in USD to offset its massive trade imbalance with the US and stave off any further tariffs in the trade
by Chris Becker Friday saw a broad lift in spot prices and futures across the iron ore complex, taking into account Rio Tinto’s force majeure following a fire at its Cape Lambert export terminal and speculation that there maybe a resolution to the trade war between China and the US soon. Here are the prices and
Asian shares finish the week with a flourish, with green results across the board as optimism grows over a potential positive outcome to the trade talks between the US and China. USD remains firm against the Asian major pairs with both the Aussie and Kiwi retreating while gold also fell a few dollars per ounce.
by Chris Becker While the headline looks bad at first glance, there’s still a lot of good news for renewable energy investors and energy consumers with the Bloomberg New Energy Finance annual report out this week. Global clean energy investment totaled $332.1 billion in 2018, down 8% on 2017; last year was the fifth in
by Chris Becker It’s always interesting to hear mega-capitalists complain about the very system that provides them opportunity to turn their talents into Scrooge McDuck size piles of cash. Furthermore, it’s usually the most successful that have the most liberal of views and Ray Dalio, head of hedge fund Bridgewater, has weighed in again. From CNBC:
by Chris Becker Some strikingly weird moves in the Australian dollar late in the overnight session with a big spike through the 72 handle vs USD – over 50 pips or half a cent – before a pullback in the early hours this morning before the Sydney open. What’s that all about? One can usually
by Chris Becker Spot iron ore prices fell slightly yesterday while the short and medium term futures edged higher alongside rebar and coking prices: Meanwhile Rio Tinto is out with a production update. Via AAP: Mining giant Rio Tinto shipped 338.2 million tonnes of iron ore from its Pilbara operations in 2018, in line with
By Chris Becker European stocks were subdued overnight in immediate response to the late session slowdown here in Asia, while US markets got a bit more confidence towards the end of the session with speculation Trump is contemplating auto tariffs. Pound Sterling jumped as the UK government announced the next vote on the Brexit deal
The rally in Asian shares slowed this afternoon as comments from the Chinese commerce industry on the global slowdown took risk well off the table. The Australian dollar cracked to a new daily low while Yen rallied on the risk off mood, affecting domestic Japanese shares. The Shanghai Composite is down over 0.4% going into the close,
by Chris Becker The US Federal Reserve as an interesting report out (unlike the US government, Trump can’t shutdown the Fed! on the impact of student debt on new homeowner rates in the US. Salient because the Coalition wants the education cake and to eat it too. Last year the Senate passed the HECS/HELP adjustments
by Chris Becker Last night the US Dollar index (DXY) was largely unchanged mainly due to the lack of any catalysts because of Trump’s shutdown. The much watched December US retail sales were postponed but both Aussie and Kiwi lost against King Dollar, down nearly 0.4% or so each. Midday in the Asian session, the
By Chris Becker With the Brexit Parliamentary vote now a distant memory, and the US government shutdown pressing on regardless – with no key economic data being released as well – markets are focused on other matters like earnings reports, which have buoyed US stocks overnight. Stability came back to Pound Sterling while the USD
by Chris Becker Here’s the latest price update from the iron ore complex, with spot prices up nearly 1% bringing the current rally close to a bull market response (i.e 20% plus) while Dalian futures also edged but the 12 monthly SGX price retreated: Aussie extractors are getting even better margins as the price keeps climbing
The risk on mood from overnight markets has not translated into any substantial gains here in Asia with most stock markets retreating although local stocks blipped higher due to a rise in bank stocks. Currency markets are somewhat back to normal as well after the big moves in Pound Sterling overnight while gold retreated slightly.
by Chris Becker The record US government (partial) shutdown moved into its 25th day overnight, with both sides digging in as Senate Leader McConnell blocked another continuation vote in the Senate to re-open the government. The impact is being felt at a micro level by the near 1 million US government employees who haven’t been
by Chris Becker Here’s the latest from the iron ore complex, where spot prices are steady while futures slipped a little: Capacity concerns in the Middle Kingdom are the focus for 2019, but it’s not moving prices around just yet. More from The Mercury: China’s steel industry will shift its focus in 2019 to optimising
By Chris Becker With the UK parliament Brexit vote dominating markets overnight – particularly currencies – sentiment picked up as US markets opened and OPEC made some gestures towards production cuts, helping oil prices as US tech stocks pushed higher. The USD lifted slightly against the majors, with Pound Sterling obviously having the most volatility, while
by Chris Becker The Brexit parliamentary vote has come and gone overnight and it’s bad news for Theresa May. From the BBC: Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal has been rejected by 230 votes – the largest defeat for a sitting government in history. MPs voted by 432 votes to 202 to reject the deal,
It’s damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead as risk markets go into tonight’s Brexit vote with a lot of confidence, as the return of Japanese markets helped buoy the risk complex across Asia today. Yen sold off helping Japanese stocks while the Aussie dollar advanced slightly and Pound Sterling remained high in advance of
